On July 5th a group of 15 from Rose Hill Church of Christ departed for a week of mission work in Orlando, FL. We didn't know what to expect when we arrived but we just knew that God had called us to GO and we went. For our group it was mostly first timers who had not done mission work before but had a desire to go do the Lord's work. For the rest of us, we trusted in God to see us through.
Orlando, Florida is a 6 hour trip from Columbus, GA. So, with stopping time and lunch we made the trip in around 8 hours arriving at our hotel at 5:00pm after leaving at 9am. We got settled into our rooms, cleaned up, and headed out to supper at Joe's Crab Shack for the evening.
After supper, we came back to the hotel for our nightly devotional together. Each night one of our young men who was on the trip shared some devotional thoughts from their heart. On the first night, I shared with them about how we were called to be messengers of God like Isaiah when he answered God, "Here am I, send me." (Isaiah 6) Each one of us made a commitment to be a part of the mission team because we heard God's call and wanted to be messengers of His word. Each one of us, in our own way, said. "Here am I, send me!" We talked about how we should expect the unexpected and to be flexible that not everything will go according to our plan, but God's plan. He would not give to us more than we could handle during our mission trip. It was interesting to listen to the first-timers talk about their expectations and why they chose to be a part of the mission team. Most of them did not know what to expect when it came to the children we would meet and the community we would work in this past week. They all said they wanted to do mission work because they had a desire to help other people. It was an uplifting evening just getting to talk about the week and what was in store for us. Bottom line: We knew that we were there to spread the love of Christ in everything that we were going to be doing.
Each morning our mission team members met with their prayer partners (who would also be their door-knocking partners) and this began Sunday morning as we prepared for the day. I asked them to talk with their partner about specific things that needed to be prayed for, how they were feeling about the day, expectations, etc. I believe most of our team embraced this time with their partner to share in prayer to begin each day. Most of the time this was done during breakfast, so they had some added time together.
On Sunday morning we worshipped with the Maingate Church of Christ which meets in one of the ballrooms provided by the Baymont Inn and Suites-Celebration. This service is overseen by the elders of Concord Street Church of Christ. Each week they have a guest preacher come in and speak, as well as, teach a bible class. The compensation for their time is a free week stay at the Baymont Inn.
The plan originally was to worship with Concord Street since we would be working with them during the week; however, on Wednesday I got a call saying the preacher for the Maingate service backed out and they were needing someone to fill-in and could I do it. So, I said of course! and I am glad that I did. I saw a family that I knew from Rossville, GA, met the parents of a youth minister in North Alabama that I knew, and met two ladies from Bermuda who wants to take Joy and I around the island when we visit their on our cruise next month. If that wasn't cool enough, the song leader that morning was baptized at Rose Hill Church of Christ many years ago! It's truly a small world but it helped us to see that no matter where you come from that as long as you belong to the body of Christ we are a family doing God's work from everywhere.
After services and bible study, we loaded up to eat lunch and head to Concord Street Church of Christ. When we arrived at Concord Street we were met by Dan and his son, Daniel, to discuss the afternoon door-knocking and the week's activities. We also met Bertha who would be helping to provide the meals to us during the week.
Door-knocking pushed our group out of their comfort zones, the chatty and outgoing people became the quiet and shy. Dan had gone over some tips to door-knocking, so that we wouldn't make people mad or let them think we were the police just by how we knocked. It was a great experience watching our kids and even adults grow through this experience. We knocked every door in the Lake Mann community, so they would know about the bible school we would be putting on Monday-Wednesday in their community.
After door-knocking we headed back to the hotel for some relaxing time before traveling to Downtown Disney to eat at Rainforest Cafe. On the way home from dinner, we had our devotional for the evening on the bus. Neiman Etheridge shared with us from his heart about how God has created us all in His image. We all may look different on the outside, we may not share things in common, but we all were created in the image of God. This was something we all needed to hear as we began our work sharing God to a community who was very much different than we are.
It was a wonderful first two days and I already knew God was planning some amazing things for us!
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